Now that we’re having some mornings in the low-40s (and even 30s!), and I was in the mood for something other than coffee, so I made some Swiss Miss – No Sugar Added hot cocoa. I thought it was a pretty good choice at first, but then I did my label-reading homework and discovered that it really wasn’t the best option for me.

I made the handy-dandy chart below to spare you the hassle of reading labels, although the Swiss Miss nutrition site is quite consumer-friendly to peruse. The point is, food boxes are a marketing tool. They are designed to appeal to the consumer with attractive colors, pictures, fonts and phrases that will result in a purchase. When a low-carber like me picks up a box labeled No Sugar Added, I would like to assume that it’s the lowest sugar option available, but it isn’t.

Ironically, many fat-free foods are actually higher in sugar than people would expect, so my gut response usually is to opt for low sugar over low fat. Interestingly with this line of hot cocoa, the Fat Free variety is better on several counts than the No Sugar Added!

I’m not picking on Swiss Miss; I happen to like their products a lot and buy them often. I just thought it was interesting how the carb/sugar contents can vary so dramatically in seemingly similar products. It’s worth the time to read the labels and be sure that you choose the product that is right for your eating plan.

Swiss Miss*  varieties	Sensible Sweets: Diet	Sensible Sweets:  Fat Free	Sensible Sweets:  No Sugar Added	Classics: Milk Chocolate
Calories	25	50	60	120
Fat	0	0	1	2
Net carbs (total carbohydrates minus fiber)	3	9	11	23
Sugar	2	8	7	18

(Swiss Miss and Sensible Sweets are registered trademarks of ConAgra Foods. Data source)

As for me, I’ll be picking up a few boxes of Diet hot cocoa the next time I’m at the store. It’s just not worth double the calories, triple the carbs and quadruple the sugar for the next-best kind. (I didn’t even mention the Classics variety; we’ll call that the control group. I could have a snack-size chocolate bar with my Diet cocoa and still end up with fewer carbs/sugar/calories!)